One of the most poignant BL to hit us from Korea. Beautifully shot and rendered. And like a jigsaw the writer pulls together all the strings in the end to create a harmonious thing of beauty and symmetry. This story is about how asymmetries fit together to form a symmetry.

One of the great things about this story was that it caught the school/college life right. Older students scared of the world they are about to step into, worried about employment, resentful about privilege and trying to boss over the juniors. The insecurities of the older students and the fear of the students from rural areas is captured very well. At the end, the juniors have all come into their own and ready to take on the baton from the seniors. These are universal themes-no wonder the international audience is so pleased with this.

Another wonderfully executed theme is the love story and how it yo-yos between the two men. The older, confident, more mature Jae Won is smitten by the younger, inexperienced Ji Hyun. For both this is the awakening of unknown emotions as both come to terms with their sexuality. But in the process of fighting their internal demons, the younger man clearly becomes the stronger anchor of that relationship.

Ji Hyun starts off in the story as a somewhat simple boy, but he has surprising insight into the older man's behavior. In fact the younger bunch, Ae Ri, the room mate, Bit Na are all extremely sorted and they basically save the older bunch from themselves. You would have expected the older bunch to be more mature but the younger lot is more mature, more accepting and better able to deal with life. This theme of the new generation taking over is actually a very interesting part of the story.

The theme of yin and yang is referenced plenty of times-- in the conversation of JaeWon with the bar lady, the explanation of the cocktail in a special glass where the two liquors dont mix yet create fireworks in the mouth, the last episode game of "one step forward, two steps backward"- basically the insight of how it is not necessary to look for identical similitude in love or relationship but look to fit together like a jigsaw, yield when needed and stand firm when the other sways.

The tonality of the screenplay is beautifully captured by the color palette used, the water motif used in all the key scenes.
The undertone of sadness that is felt all through the story because of Jae Won's backstory is never fully explained and finally lifts at the end of 9th episode as Jae Won finally decides to step forward and runs to Ji Hyun. And that is the beauty of this story, it doesnt go into backstories , it just explores the present emotions of the characters and the choices made by them. Yes the backstory of Jae Won could have been milked to increase the pathos, but kudos to the director who instead choses to focus on the steadfastness and love of Ji Hyun.

I find this cinematic choice of saying in the present fascinating. Given a chance Kdramas, Cdramas would NEVER let a chance of milking the past grievances go, whether the story needs it or not... But here the writer/director goes with the flow of present events. Not just for the main couple but even all the side characters, everyone goes with the flow, allowing the present to look towards the glowing future career, job, love and not just the pains and grievances of the past.

Well done and more power to all the actors and writer/director. This is the true rise of the BL genre in Kdrama space and from Bluenming, to Semantic Error, To my Star, to The Eighth Sense, this space can only grow! Go watch it!